Andy Burnham has plan to return to Westminster ‘within weeks’. Allies sayGreater Manchester mayor said to have identified seats where MPs would step aside to allow leadership bid.

Luckygirl3

I am not sure why he is loathed - if indeed that is the case.

He has been a steady hand on the tiller, respects the rule of law and parliament (a departure from the Tories), good on the international stage and has not allowed himself to be intimidated into unwise actions by Trump - but for my money he has not been radical enough at home with social policies to address inequalities and has tried to appease the far right too much.

But none of that makes me loathe him. Like all PMs he is between a rock and a hard place, and if he dares to make mention of the mess he was left to pick up it is seen as a cop-out. He can't win. It is a shame that his colleagues are not showing more loyalty and using persuasion behind the scenes rather than grandstanding.

It is a shame that his colleagues are not showing more loyalty and using persuasion behind the scenes rather than grandstanding.

I agree. Choosing to do so at this particular time is particularly damaging too.

Who needs enemies when those in your own government betray you?

Casdon

… and lots of other groups too. Here is a voter types piece of social research.
natcen.ac.uk/news/new-research-natcen-defines-six-uk-voter-types-ahead-general-election

The current UK electorate is made up of six distinct groups of voters, according to new analysis from the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen).

Oh dear, I don't seem to fit in any category!

I don’t loathe him but am angry with him and disappointed that that he’s dragging Labour down in the polls.
As to what will happen, I think if Streeting and Rayner do mount a challenge then Starmer will beat them ( not literally!) as most MP’s are waiting for Burnham to be able to mount a challenge later when he/if he becomes an MP.
Whatever happens Keir Starmer will go at some point.

I am getting really fed up with the waay the world in general and GN is part of it, can only talk in extremes. If you do not love someone you obviously hate them. If you do not like someone you loath them. Express any cticism of any one means that you hate them and so on

I do not love or hate any politician, but I do look at their actions listen to what they say and reach conclusions about them. Unfortunately currently the leaders of most of our parties are a pretty rum lot and none of them up to the job they wish to do. But I do not hate them. If they fell in a river I would do all I could to rescue them.

But more generally could we stop all this throwing around of extreme words for peoples opinions and accept that between love and hate, likeing and loathing there is whole range of other much less extreme feelings. and that to criticise someone is not to hate that person.

I hate Farage. And I hate Trump. Because people are suffering because of them.

Oreo

I don’t loathe him but am angry with him and disappointed that that he’s dragging Labour down in the polls.
As to what will happen, I think if Streeting and Rayner do mount a challenge then Starmer will beat them ( not literally!) as most MP’s are waiting for Burnham to be able to mount a challenge later when he/if he becomes an MP.
Whatever happens Keir Starmer will go at some point.

Sadly I agree.

I think it’s another big fat mess we (uk) just don’t need. Mr Trump has caused enough damage to our world and destabilised things. ☹️☹️☹️

MayBee70

I hate Farage. And I hate Trump. Because people are suffering because of them.

It’s very hard not to feel that way. I loathe and despise them both.

M0nica

I am getting really fed up with the waay the world in general and GN is part of it, can only talk in extremes. If you do not love someone you obviously hate them. If you do not like someone you loath them. Express any cticism of any one means that you hate them and so on

I do not love or hate any politician, but I do look at their actions listen to what they say and reach conclusions about them. Unfortunately currently the leaders of most of our parties are a pretty rum lot and none of them up to the job they wish to do. But I do not hate them. If they fell in a river I would do all I could to rescue them.

But more generally could we stop all this throwing around of extreme words for peoples opinions and accept that between love and hate, likeing and loathing there is whole range of other much less extreme feelings. and that to criticise someone is not to hate that person.

👏👏👏👏👏👏

Luckygirl3

I am not sure why he is loathed - if indeed that is the case.

He has been a steady hand on the tiller, respects the rule of law and parliament (a departure from the Tories), good on the international stage and has not allowed himself to be intimidated into unwise actions by Trump - but for my money he has not been radical enough at home with social policies to address inequalities and has tried to appease the far right too much.

But none of that makes me loathe him. Like all PMs he is between a rock and a hard place, and if he dares to make mention of the mess he was left to pick up it is seen as a cop-out. He can't win. It is a shame that his colleagues are not showing more loyalty and using persuasion behind the scenes rather than grandstanding.

I couldn’t agree more.

It seems the general public are disappointed and that Starmer is unpopular. Quite why hes so unpopular is a mystery to me. Huge criticism that a friend gave him some specs. Farage takes £5m but that’s ok

I do belief Starmer is a decent man with integrity, he always aid he wasn’t a politician.,,,,,,

Casdon

It is by convention that the PM is an MP, it’s not law. It would, if they chose to do so, be possible to appoint Burnham as the leader of the Labour Party and make him PM without an election.

That would not be possible.

Burnham cannot be appointed as Leader of the Labour Party because he's not an MP.

Rules of the Labour Party state that only current MP's can be selected as Leader of the Party.

Iam64

It seems the general public are disappointed and that Starmer is unpopular. Quite why hes so unpopular is a mystery to me. Huge criticism that a friend gave him some specs. Farage takes £5m but that’s ok

I do belief Starmer is a decent man with integrity, he always aid he wasn’t a politician.,,,,,,

I believe he is a hard working, decent and pretty honest man, who genuinely wants to improve his electorate lives.

He had a very shaky start, was highly criticised for the way in which he swiftly halted those awful riots, then hauled across the coals for the WFP taken away, then criticised for bringing it back, and so it goes on.

I can only say that I’m so glad he was at the helm when Trump started levying tariffs and when he launched into the utterly insane Iranian war.

I hope his own MPs will allow him to go gracefully and that the next person is 1) supported more by their own MPs and 2) actually manages to turn things around.

The very last thing we need as a country, on all levels, is some cobbled together coalition govt made up of True Tories, and Tory-Reform!

The Labour Party makes its own rules though butterandjam, so can change them. If there were a law against it, that would make it impossible to achieve in the timescale.

I very much doubt they will change the rules.

Cossy

MayBee70

I hate Farage. And I hate Trump. Because people are suffering because of them.

It’s very hard not to feel that way. I loathe and despise them both.

I'm not sure that I could go so far as to say I loathe and despise them, but I can't find anything remotely appealing about either of them - either as individuals or as politicians.

MOnica, That's what I was trying to say. I had been watching a "vox pop" with some Barnsley voters. You're probably aware that Barnsley has been solid Labour for 50+ years, but now has a Reform local council. People were saying they hated Starmer and I really didn't get how they could say that, particularly as they voted for Reform, whose leader is far more hateworthy (in my opinion).

I agree with M0nica too.

I've all but given up on politics threads here because of the extreme reaction against anything and everything the government does, and particularly against Starmer. There is no debate any more, just mud slinging and hysterical emojis.

I don't think Starmer has done a great job politically, but I do think he's been excellent in standing up to Trump - far from the 'weak' leader he is accused of being (by Badenoch, ironically) - keeping us out of the Iran war was worth any number of mis-steps he may have made in the two years he's help power. I also think that he is behind a lot of very good domestic policies, but realise that things like workers' rights, increased NMW, and renter's rights threaten the profits of Labour's opponents, so they have lost no opportunity to snipe at him.

Politicians of any stripe are ambitious, particularly the ones at the top, who are usually 'alpha' types or they wouldn't be where they are. The good ones because they want their vision of what is right for the country to be the one that holds sway, and the others because they want to be in charge. I am not surprised, therefore, that as soon as they smell blood they manoeuvre to get promotions. For Labour politicians, who have spent years on the back benches, this may be their only chance to do so. Look how often it happened with the Tories, who had had ages for individuals to get to the top.

None of that is good for the country, but it was ever thus, I think.

Being in government is brutal, the role of the opposition is to challenge ( Starmer had the time of his life when Johnson was under fire by his own party), I have a tiniest bit of sympathy for him in that I think part of the dislike for Starmer is a cumulative effect of years of distrust in politicians. People voted against the tories rather than for Labour which was probably never going to end well.

And Rayner has just thrown her hat into the ring ( states she has been cleared by HMRC).

She might have been cleared but is still tainted by it. I was prepared to forgive her for it assuming it was just an oversight until she started stabbing the PM in the back. I don’t think she has the gravitas to represent the country on the world stage with so many things happening internationally.

She might have been cleared but is still tainted by it.

I think she will be.
Always a question mark. Unless HMRC come out with a statement[they may have done but not seen one].

Not sure how she would fare, worldwide.

Oh I think she would not be a good idea at all.

She paid the £40k she owed, she wasn’t cleared. She shouldn’t even be considered to be our PM in my opinion.

I wish I could find £40k just like that.

LadyGracie

She paid the £40k she owed, she wasn’t cleared. She shouldn’t even be considered to be our PM in my opinion.

I wish I could find £40k just like that.

As far as I’m aware, Angela Rayner was investigated and cleared of wrongdoing, and no charges were brought against her.

Paying money owed, such as tax that HMRC later decides is due, isn’t the same thing as being found guilty of misconduct. It’s fair to criticise politicians, but the facts matter.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx219y4qy0qo